ABSTRACT
In recent years, there has been a growing body of sociological literature arguing that society and nature are indivisible (e.g. Barth, 1992: 20; Beck, 1992; Martell, 1994; Redclift and Benton, 1994). Nevertheless, the separation of nature from society is regarded as one of the great success stories of modern society and modern social science. It is characteristic of modernity that nature has been largely excluded from reflection on society and from social science discourse in general. Marx is an exception, but his approach has not been well received by environmentalist sociologists (but see Benton, 1993; Grundmann, 1991; O'Connor, 1997). Today, efforts to separate the spheres of nature and society are less convincing. Despite the growing number of voices demanding a reorientation, this is not met by an equally persuasive theoretical perspective. Yet an integrative approach may lead to naturalistic fallacies, which have been attacked by sociologists since sociology became established as an academic discipline (Durkheim, 1951, 1964; Simmel, 1992; Weber, 1911; cf. Grundmann and Stehr, 1997; Turner and Factor, 1994).
